Politicians speak
Saviors in seersucker suits
Will you be redeemed?
Haiku
Afternoon Haiku
by JOHN ADAMS •
Subsidy requests
Dribble like perspiration
Election closer
Libertarians
Libertarian Quotation List
by JOHN ADAMS •
The Knoxville blog No Silence Here, via Blue Collar Muse, offers a lengthy libertarian quote list. I usually dislike quotation lists, as the quotes are often out of context, and consequently misused.
Still, there are some gems here, including this from Tacitus:
“The more corrupt the state, the more it legislates.”
The quotation is a paraphrase from the Annals, Book III, following an observation that tribunes used legislation to manipulate common people.
The full list may be found via http://blogs.knoxnews.com/knx/silence/
archives/2008/07/the_ultimate_li.shtml
Free Markets
Go-Go: What Lake Geneva, WI Banned, Kodak Embraced
by JOHN ADAMS •
Yesterday, in a morning post, I mentioned that in 1967 Lake Geneva, Wisconsin’s “city government passed an ordinance banning go-go girls, dancers in bikinis, and swimsuit-clad waitresses from working in establishments that served alcohol.”
It was local government deciding for you. Like most people, I would prefer a restaurant where the emphasis was on the food, not the waitresses.
Still, I would never advocate a ban — if someone dislikes this sort of restaurant, he or she can go elsewhere.
No one forces you inside.
Even while a group of scolds managed to push Lake Geneva in a restrictive direction, America was using the idea of go-go dancing to sell products. Here’s a Kodak commercial from 1965 or 1966 that, however dated now, must have seemed trendy then:
Shocking, absolutely shocking. more >>
Daily Bread
Daily Bread: August 1, 2008
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning, Whitewater
The month begins with no public meetings scheduled in the city today — no partnerships needed, it’s private life all the way around.
In our history today, from the Wisconsin Historical Society, on this day in 1996, Shirley Abrahamson “became the first woman to be named Supreme Court Chief Justice in Wisconsin.”
The National Weather Service, predicts a high of 87 degrees and patchy fog — one degree warmer than yesterday’s prediction. The Farmers’ Almanac, predicts “fair and hot.”
Uncategorized
Whitewater School Board Meeting for July 28th, Part 3
by JOHN ADAMS •
The Whitewater School Board meeting for Monday night was technically perfect – an agenda of more than a dozen items, dispatched in little over forty minutes.
I know that summer days are long and hot, but I cannot avoid observing that there was a perfunctory quality to it all.
We can list any number of personnel changes, and agenda items completed, but that approach belies the routine, almost weary quality of a meeting.
The energy for a different approach comes more easily from a different environment, of more choices.
We may not have more schools from which to choose, but we can have more choice within our schools.
More on increasing choice, competitiveness, and energy in August.
Uncategorized
Whitewater School Board Meeting for July 28th, Part 2
by JOHN ADAMS •
I contended in Part 1 that conventionality takes hold quickly in s public body, in the absence of choice and the competition that it creates.
That’s why I have contended before that ideology matters little, after a while: politics devolves from principled ideology into self-interested incumbency. Liberal, conservative, moderate – long-term incumbents all start to think and act alike.
Energy matters less than longevity and defense of incumbency.
Education shouldn’t be like this, but it is – the near monopoly of government over children’s education makes the embrace of the ordinary enticing, safe, and predictable.
Uncategorized
Whitewater School Board Meeting for July 28th, Part 1
by JOHN ADAMS •
I posted previously on Andrew Coulson’s observation that public education costs more nationally than ever, but produces a result no better than decades ago.
How did the world’s richest nation, with so many sharp people, wind up in this predicament?
We abandoned the opportunities for choice in education.
Choice produces competition between objects from which one may choose.
Mistakes are not a matter of intellect, but of a system without incentives. There were and are plenty of smart Russians, but Soviet planning provided no incentive to talent and effort.
Without the competition that choice imposes, stagnation, business as usual, and conventionality take hold.
Uncategorized
Neighbors’ Payroll Reductions Affect Nearby Towns
by JOHN ADAMS •
The Janesville Gazette has a troubling story on the decline in payrolls, by 3.1% over the last year, in Janesville.
Smaller Whitewater (less than one quarter the size of Janesville) will feel the influence of economic hardship in its larger neighbor.
The link to the Gazette story is at
http://www.gazettextra.com/weblogs/latest-news/2008/jul/30/janesville-area-among-nations-worst-job-losses/
Free Markets, School District
Public Schools as Old, Expensive Chevy Impalas, Part 2
by JOHN ADAMS •
Yesterday, I posted on the observation of Andrew Coulson at Cato who contends that public schools were like old, expensive Chevy Impalas.
Here’s why he makes that analogy:
U.S. student achievement at the end of high school has stagnated (reading and math) or declined (science) since nationally-representative NAEP tests were first administered around 1970. Meanwhile, education spending has risen by a factor of 2.3 over that same period, from $5,247 per student to about $12,000, in inflation-adjusted (2008) dollars. [To get the most up-to-date figures you have to use multiple sources and adjust to 2008 dollars yourself, but an older data series can be found in this table.]
Coulson offers a solution of “public education [as] part of our free enterprise system, with financial assistance to ensure universal access to the marketplace…”
Charity
Alzheimer’s Association Offers Dementia Specialist Training
by JOHN ADAMS •
I received a press release from the Alzheimer’s Association, offering a training on August 14th and 21st. Here is the full text of their press release:
The Alzheimer’s Association will present its innovative two-day Dementia Specialist Training course on Thursday, August 14th and August 21st at the Country Inn and Suites, 2921 O’Leary Lane, East Troy.
The training is open to direct care professionals including nurses, nursing assistants, crisis intervention staff, social workers, supervisors, administrators, therapists, etc. This two-day highly interactive program teaches the skills necessary for successfully interacting with people who have dementia.
The training is fun, interesting and innovative and includes role playing, case studies, and experiential exercises. All materials, parking, breakfast, refreshments and lunch are included in the program fee of $100 per person. Upon completion, participants will receive a certificate for 15 contact hours.
Course topics for this 15-hour program include, understanding Alzheimer’s disease and aging, understanding person-effective communication, impact of the environment, promoting strengths and abilities, adding meaning to daily life, accepting behavior as communication, and teamwork and self care.
Two week advance registration is required for this training, to register, please contact Diane Baughn, Education and Training Services Manager at 414-479-8800. Please visit www.alz.org/sewi and click on Professional Training for more information.
Dementia Specialist Training is made possible in part through a grant from the Extendicare Foundation, a national non-profit organization that provides grants for research, education and service related programs pertaining to Alzheimer’s disease.
The Alzheimer’s Association is a national non-profit organization dedicated to eliminating Alzheimer’s disease through the advancement of research and to enhance care and support for individuals, their families, and caregivers.
The Alzheimer’s Association of Southeastern Wisconsin provides information, education, and support to people with Alzheimer’s and related dementias, their families, and healthcare professionals throughout an 11-county region. For more information about Alzheimer’s disease and chapter services visit www.alz.org/sewi or call the toll-free, 24-hour Helpline at 800-272-3900.
Daily Bread
Daily Bread: July 31, 2008
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning, Whitewater
There are no public meetings scheduled in the city today.
In Wisconsin history today, according to the Wisconsin Historical Society, on this day in 1967, Lake Geneva “city government passed an ordinance banning go-go girls, dancers in bikinis, and swimsuit-clad waitresses from working in establishments that served alcohol.”
There must have been the possibility that at least one establishment wanted to employ waitresses dressed this way. Here government legislates morality, and over a trivial rather than an extreme display.
The contention, presumably, would be that the community should not accept swimsuit-clad waitresses. Yet, if the ordinance were need to prevent private activity, there must have been a market, and a community preference, for restaurants like this. They would not be my choice; I would not support government deciding that they cannot be your choice.
The National Weather Service, predicts a high of 86 degrees and patchy fog. The Farmers’ Almanac, predicts “stormy weather.” They are not similar predictions — only one, or neither, will be right.
Charity
Thanks from Those Who Deserve Our Thanks
by JOHN ADAMS •
I received a letter from the Relay for Life Team sponsored by Pete’s Tire Service. The relay team wanted to thank those who made their Brat & Burger fry a success. They had their best turnout this year.
I am happy to post the letter, all the while remembering the volunteers on the team deserve our thanks.
The Relay for Life team sponsored by Pete’s Tire Service of Whitewater hosted its annual Brat and Burger Fry on Friday, July 25th at Pete’s Tire Service just east of Whitewater on Highway 12. We had our biggest crowd ever. The event raised $2,399 to go towards Whitewater’s Relay for Life to be held on Aug. 1 and 2 at the Cravath Lake Front.
The team’s goal is to raise $4,000 this year. Last Friday’s proceeds will put the team well on its way to reaching its goal.
Once again we had wonderful community support for this event.
The team would like to thank Pete & Suzan Brock for being so supportive every year, Rachel (Brock) Yackels, of Pete’s Tire Service for relaying information to Pete and doing such a great job at the grill, Jonathan Brock for his help setting up and being the “gopher”, Jim Stewart & “John Adams” for the publicity on their websites, Anne Griffiths and Whitewater Family Practice for allowing us to display our street banner, Chuck Nass for his advice on where to display banners, the area newspapers for help in getting the word out, Culligan Dalee Water Treatment for donating bottled water, Frawley Oil Company, Inc. for donating ice, Sentry Foods for the gift certificate towards the purchase of the brats, Jim & Kathy Schumacher for picking up the supply of burgers, Firestone for covering the cost of the burgers, Home Lumber for the loan of the picnic tables, Bob Strand of Strand Builders for the donation and everyone that came out to eat or who made a donation to the American Cancer Society.
For more information about the Whitewater Relay for Life go to http://events.cancer.org/rflwhitewaterwi.
Best wishes to everyone on the team, and all those others supporting the 2008 Relay for Life.
School District
Public Schools as Old, Expensive Chevy Impalas?
by JOHN ADAMS •
Andrew Coulson of Cato contends that if the auto industry were run like public schools, then you’d have to purchase an old model car at a high price:
What would the U.S. automobile industry look like if it were run the same way, and had suffered the same productivity collapse, as public schooling? To the left is a 1971 Chevrolet Impala. According to the New York Times of September 25th, 1970, it originally sold for $3,460. That’s $19,011 in today’s dollars. If cars were like public schools, you would be compelled to buy one of these today, and to pay $43,479 for that privilege (2.3 times the original price).
Why, though? How did this turn of events come about? More on this later tonight…